Who on Earth are we 9

Callum: Hello and welcome to Talk about English and the tenth programme in our series on culture, Who on Earth are we? Today, with the help of Rebecca Fong, a teacher of inter-cultural communication at the University of the West of England, Marc Beeby looks at what is probably the main difficulty we face when we try to communicate with people from other cultures. What is this difficulty? Here’s Marc.

Marc: Quite simply, our own culture gets in the way. We’ve already heard, in earlier programmes, that communication problems can arise because of the different ways cultures use language, gesture, non-verbal communication - and we’ve learnt that the way a culture chooses to communicate is the product of its environment, and of its values, beliefs and attitudes. As members of a culture, we carry our culture’s attitudes with us - they’re part of who we are. And so, when we talk to people from different cultures, or visit foreign countries, we’ll probably be faced with different attitudes, and different ways of doing things. And it’s at this point that we can meet some serious intercultural difficulties. Rebecca Fong guides us through these difficulties now, with help and comments from people from around the world. Rebecca begins with food…

Rebecca Fong

Let’s just take the business of eating as an example. What we eat -whether or not we eat dog or raw fish or snake or pork or beef or rice or potatoes -all of these things arise from different conditions for different agricultural or environmental or religious or social reasons and what about when we eat and how much we eat and food rituals 1 such as whether we eat noisily or quietly or whether it’s OK to eat in public or not and the people that we eat with and the status of different types of food in our cultures - all of these things aren’t just simple acts that we all

do exactly the same everywhere -in fact they all have culture specific norms 2（规范） and rules and values attached to them.

 

Mounia el Kouche

In many Western countries I’ve been in I’ve seen that people just rush out, grab 3 a sandwich for lunch. It’s almost a hassle（激战） to eat. However, in Morocco it’s completely the opposite. A typical family’s lunch will be much larger than western countries are used to. It will be the main meal of the day so it’ll be huge. It’ll be one big plate in the middle usually, with meat, vegetables, a sauce. Everybody has bread to dip inside and take what they want to eat. So I think usually there’ll be about six, on average seven people round one plate, and the meals could take a whole morning to prepare. that’s why often the women stay home and they cook and it’s a very big thing.

 

Rebecca Fong

Not surprisingly we find it much easier to get on with cultures who do things in a similar way to us than with cultures who do things very differently. And so we’re actively 4 looking for things that we have in common with them all the time and that means that we tend to equate（同等对待，使相等） sameness and similarity positively 5, whereas 6 difference and especially extreme difference is perceived（察觉，感觉，认知） negatively because we are unable to understand really why people would choose to do or choose to organise 7 things differently from the way that we have chosen to do them or organise them.

 

Emma Kambangula

It was quite difficult to live with Angolans the same way we live with Namibians. First there’s the language difference, secondly 8 our cultures are quite far different from each other. Take for example the first time when we met with a group of Angolans going to a funeral.（葬礼） They were kind of dancing and you thought they were happy or something. We thought how can you mourn（哀悼） somebody like this because in Namibia it’s a serious mourning and you can see it. Then the same way the way they celebrate things is quite different from ours. So it was like, no, we can’t fit in this life.

Rebecca Fong

Very often in fact, we can learn to get used to food and architecture and music with reasonable ease. It’s much more the things that are invisible（不可见的） to us that we have problems with. By this we mean our underlying（在下面的） ideas. These ideas can be political or religious or economic or social but often they are assumptions 9 （假定，设想）that are so deeply ingrained（根深蒂固的） in us that we don’t even know they are there. All of these things are invisibly shaping our attitudes to things and the way we evaluate the world - even though we might think of our attitudes as totally free and individual.

 

Annabel Port

I saw big gender 10 differences in all the countries I lived in, perhaps the most so in Poland actually. I was extremely shocked to see female friends of mine who are very well-educated and seemingly 11 very strong and independent rush home to cook some food for their boyfriend or go round to their boyfriend’s house to clean his bath or stove and I was very shocked by that. For them it’s extremely normal and that’s what they are supposed to do and it’s very hard to understand being British.

 

Rebecca Fong

The real danger occurs because we are imprisoned 12 inside the ideas and beliefs of our cultures and we don’t even know it. We see our own cultures as the centre of the world -the way that everybody does things normally. And if we do consider other cultures’ ways of doing things we often tend to think that the way we do things is superior to（比。。。优越） the way another culture does something.

 

Ilse Meyer

Germans thought, of course, that they were the best people in the world like other nations also think the same of themselves. Europeans thought they were superior to all the other nations. For instance when I learnt the names of the five continents of the world, Europe came first although all the others came according to size and Europe was not the first. Europa - Asia - Afrika - Amerika - Australia.

Rebecca Fong

This is what inter-culturalists refer to as ethnocentrism（民族优越感） -from the Greek words ethnos which means nation or community and centrism - centre. So what we are saying is you are born in the centre of your own community or nation and you take on that way of acting 13 and thinking invisibly - without even knowing it. We’re all born ethnocentric - it’s probably the greatest barrier we’ll ever have to understanding other cultures.

Because of ethnocentrism we set up standards of what we believe to be possible and what we believe to be right or wrong and when we see cultures doing things in other ways we’ll immediately evaluate them and we’ll say ‘oh yes’ that’s a good thing -they are doing that right, or oh no they’re doing that wrong - what we mean is right or wrong relative to our own cultures -they’re doing it right if they’re doing it the way we do it.

 

Eilidh Hamilton

We all believe that our culture is the right way of doing it because we’ve always been told this is right, this is how you behave, this is what you must say, this is what you must do. When you move to another culture often you have to realise that what you have learnt is not intrinsically（内在的，固有的） right -it’s just one way. So for example in the Arab world people would drop in on others a lot more - a much more informal visiting culture. There’s a definite value in being willing to drop whatever you’re doing to entertain your guests and moreover and perhaps more importantly, not let them be aware that you were interrupting them in any way. Whereas I think in current Western culture people would be quite surprised if someone came to their door.

 

Rebecca Fong

How do cultures set up norms and values for themselves in the first place? Well we all know that the world is infinitely 14 complex - there are millions of different ways of behaving and organising life and viewing things and evaluating them. So we simplify by taking experience and categorising it. We decide what behaviour is acceptable 15 and what’s not acceptable – and because we simplify like this we are at the same time, we are excluding the many many other possibilities that exist, so that when we go to another culture we naturally ignore all these other possibilities that no longer exist in our culture. We only see the obvious differences and this can often lead to stereotyping 16. Stereotypes 18 are the preconceived ideas （先入之见）that we have about a different culture - so we might say rather glibly（流利的，流畅的） well in Italy they spend all their time eating spaghetti（意大利式细面条） or the Chinese, yes the Chinese are very very hard-working. And by having a stereotype 17 in mind ironically what we also do is that we look to satisfy that stereotype（老套） in our minds so that’s preventing us from seeing other things that also exist in that culture.

Rajni Badlani

My impression came out from, you know, books I had read, novels, fiction, etc. Which is like the people in the west have a lot of, sort of, personal freedom, are very individualistic are very materialistic（唯物论的）. Westerners begin sexually 19 very available in India when, you know, people are propositioned 20 on the streets. That’s our stereotype of the west.

 

Rebecca Fong

Some degree of stress will normally be present in all inter-cultural situations. Because if you’re attempting to use their language, for one thing, you can’t conduct a conversation in the way you’re normally capable of conducting it and you may feel embarrassed or stupid if you make mistakes.

 

Guillermo De Yavorsky

We were travelling in China for a holiday. We were trying to ask something and it was difficult to relate because they didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Chinese. And then the Chinese people started to laugh and I never knew if they were laughing at you or with you. I found it very annoying.

Rebecca Fong

You can end up feeling quite depressed 21 or exhausted 22 and this can lead to culture shock.

Marc: Rebecca Fong, ending our survey of some of the barriers to successful communication between people from different cultures - and introducing us to the subject of next week’s programme - ‘culture shock’. You also heard from Mounia el Kouche from Morocco, Emma Kambangula from Namibia, Guillermo de Yavorky from Venezuela, Annabel Port from Britain, Ilse Meyer who grew up in Germany, Rilidh Hamilton who spent several years in the Middle East, and Dr Rajni Badlani of the British Council in India. So, in order to communicate effectively with someone from another culture -in order to be a good ‘inter-culturalist’ - how far do we have to go? Do we have to give up our values and beliefs and adopt someone else’s? Who’s right? I’ll leave Rebecca to answer that question. Join us next time.

Rebecca Fong

Inter-culturalism isn’t about simple either/or ways of doing things. It’s not about right or wrong ways of doing things -it’s about understanding that there are a huge number of different possible ways of doing things each of which are equally valid 23. And what we should do as inter-culturalists is learn to judge the actions as appropriate to the particular context 24 from which they come rather than by our own culture’s standards - so you might find that there are times in fact when you’re abroad or in another culture or dealing 25 with somebody from another culture that you find yourself doing something or saying something or behaving in a way that you wouldn’t necessarily do back home but you are doing it in the interest of being a good inter-culturalist - and isn’t it brilliant that there are all these different ways of doing things in the world. We should consider this to be a marvellous, positive thing and not a limitation in any way.  (本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

 

 

点击收听单词发音  






1
rituals

  
 


（宗教等的）仪式( ritual的名词复数 )； 例行公事，老规矩


参考例句：





A cognac before bed is one of our little nightly rituals. 临睡之前喝点儿干邑是我们每天晚上的小习惯之一。
Many of the tribe's customs and rituals are as old as the hills. 这部落的许多风俗、仪式都极其古老。












2
norms

  
 


n. 规范
名词norm的复数形式


参考例句：





deviation from the previously accepted norms 违背事先接受的准则
Everyone should abide by our social norms. 我们每个人都应该遵守社会行为准则。












3
grab

  
 


vt./n.攫取，抓取；vi.攫取，抓住(at)


参考例句：





It is rude to grab a seat.抢占座位是不礼貌的。
The thief made a grab at my bag but I pushed him away.贼想抢我的手提包，但被我推开了。












4
actively

  
 


adv.积极地，勤奋地


参考例句：





During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。












5
positively

  
 


adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实


参考例句：





She was positively glowing with happiness.她满脸幸福。
The weather was positively poisonous.这天气着实讨厌。












6
whereas

  
 


conj.而，却，反之


参考例句：





They want a house,whereas we would rather live in a flat.他们想要一座房子，而我们宁愿住在一套房间里。
Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他，而有些人谴责他。












7
organise

  
 


vt.组织，安排，筹办


参考例句：





He has the ability to organise.他很有组织才能。
It's my job to organise all the ceremonial events.由我来组织所有的仪式。












8
secondly

  
 


adv.第二，其次


参考例句：





Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。












9
assumptions

  
 


假定，臆断( assumption的名词复数 )； （责任的）承担； （他人债务的）承继； [the A-][基督教]1)。 圣母升天


参考例句：





Their reasoning was based on a set of unstated assumptions. 他们的推理是以一系列未说明的假定为基础的。
Your argument is based on a set of questionable assumptions. 你的论证建立在一套有问题的假设上。












10
gender

  
 


n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性


参考例句：





French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。












11
seemingly

  
 


adv.从表面上看起来，似乎是


参考例句：





Seemingly,we can do nothing to prevent this from happening.我们似乎没有什么办法阻止这件事发生。
For several seemingly interminable seconds no one spoke.有几秒钟没有人讲话，这几秒钟似乎十分漫长。












12
imprisoned

  
 


下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )


参考例句：





He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。












13
acting

  
 


n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的


参考例句：





Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。












14
infinitely

  
 


adv.无限地，无穷地


参考例句：





There is an infinitely bright future ahead of us.我们有无限光明的前途。
The universe is infinitely large.宇宙是无限大的。












15
acceptable

  
 


adj.可接受的，合意的，受欢迎的


参考例句：





The terms of the contract are acceptable to us.我们认为这个合同的条件可以接受。
Air pollution in the city had reached four times the acceptable levels.这座城市的空气污染程度曾高达可接受标准的四倍。












16
stereotyping

  
 


v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的现在分词 )


参考例句：





I realize that I'm stereotyping. 我认识到我搞的是老一套。 来自辞典例句
There is none of the gender stereotyping usually evident in school uniforms. 有没有人的性别刻板印象通常是显而易见的。 来自互联网












17
stereotype

  
 


n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框


参考例句：





He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。












18
stereotypes

  
 


n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )


参考例句：





Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》












19
sexually

  
 


adv.性别上地；按性别地；性欲地；两性之间地


参考例句：





to be sexually promiscuous 性生活淫乱
I was depressed,withdrawn and sexually frigid. 我郁郁寡欢，离群索居，没有什么性要求。 来自《简明英汉词典》












20
propositioned

  
 


v.提议（proposition的过去式与过去分词形式）


参考例句：





She was propositioned several times in the course of the evening. 整个晚上有人几次向她提出非分要求。 来自辞典例句
He propositioned every girl in the bar, but none were interested. 他对酒吧里的每一女孩提出猥亵的要求，但是没有人理睬他。 来自辞典例句












21
depressed

  
 


adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的


参考例句：





When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。












22
exhausted

  
 


adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的


参考例句：





It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。












23
valid

  
 


adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的


参考例句：





His claim to own the house is valid.他主张对此屋的所有权有效。
Do you have valid reasons for your absence?你的缺席有正当理由吗？












24
context

  
 


n.背景，环境，上下文，语境


参考例句：





You can always tell the meaning of a word from its context.你常可以从上下文中猜出词义来。
This sentence does not seem to connect with the context.这个句子似乎与上下文脱节。












25
dealing

  
 


n.经商方法，待人态度


参考例句：





This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。